"Princess culture is in danger of turning a generation of girls into overspending narcissists"

Story here. Excerpt:

'A communications professor at Creighton University in Nebraska, Shuler decided to take a sabbatical to study what academics are starting to call "princess culture" -- young girls inundated by films, books, toys, clothes and enabled by friends and family who encourage them to see themselves as bona fide blue-bloods.

Little girls have always swanned around in mom's castoff party frocks while pretending to boss the staff. But observers are concerned about what princess culture is doing to little girls. And what will happen when little princesses grow up to be insufferable adolescents and adults who demand constant adulation and access to a bottomless pot of spending money.

"When she's 15 and you say 'She's a princess,' that's not good. So where's the transition?" asks personality psychologist Jean Twenge, co-author of The Narcissism.
...
It's easy to think the corporate world is simply imposing products on an unsuspecting world, but it's more complicated than that, says Cook. Disney's princess merchandising touched a nerve that already existed, as well as a sweet spot for selling stuff to little girls and their elders who are willing to extend princess-hood far past the primary school years.

"There was something going on with these girls," Cook says. "So many young girls want to maintain the princess persona past the boundary of playtime. Part of play can be powerfully educational and transformative. But eventually you have to put it down. What concerns me is the lack of boundaries."'